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Cat has a tiny piano which he plays when he’s hungry

14 August 2020, 16:14 | Updated: 25 October 2022, 17:53

Cat plays piano when he's hungry. Picture: Kate Nyx/SWNS

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

This hungry catto has found the key to playing his owner.

This exceptionally sharp cat has a tiny piano, which he plays whenever he’s hungry.

In a video posted to Twitter and TikTok (watch below), the cat responds with an urgent “miaow” when asked “When is dinner time?”. Sadly, even after a tickle of the ivories, the answer turns out to be, “It’s not now”.

Winslow, a seven-year-old tabby cat from Philadelphia, US, was introduced to the musical instrument a few years ago, when his owner was in search of a way to settle him down during bouts of bad behaviour – which included making strange, loud noises.

Musician Kate Nyx, his owner, said: “He used to run around screaming all the time and I was like, ‘this is no good’”.

Giving him a tiny piano to play with seemed to do the job. “The piano is another way to communicate so he’s not screaming bloody murder.

“He was a rambunctious kitten and he’s transformed into a chaotic gentleman.”

Cat learns to play piano to tell his owners when he needs feeding

Winslow was adopted at eight weeks old after being abandoned in a back garden, where he was found trying to fight a dog.

“He was scarred up, covered in dirt, we had to teach him how to eat dry food and he had a serious case of ringworm,” Nyx said.

The tiny piano was an eBay purchase, which Nyx made years ago and had kept in the house ever since. When Winslow was a kitten, he became curious about the instrument.

“He would play the notes and look underneath trying to find where they were coming from,” his owner said.

But since then, it’s turned into a sort of a service bell. “It became some kind of hunting reward because he can’t do much in the apartment. He tends to only play it when we’re in the kitchen and he knows he can possible get a snack.”

Winslow plays when he wants a snack. Picture: Kate Nyx/SWNS

Winslow has also learned to depress the keys when he wants his litter tray to be refreshed, or even when he just wants a little chin scritch.

“He uses the piano to express himself in general, for attention, to get his litter scooped,” said Nyx. “It’s his alarm system in general”.

“He learned that I encourage moving his paws up and down the keyboard, so he does that when he really wants something.”

Since going viral on the Internet, Winslow has released his magnum opus, ‘Bean Gotta Scream’, which dropped on 7 August on streaming platforms. Have a listen here – it’s meow than worth a listen. I’ll see myself out...